World Chess Championship: Dean does not press with White, and Gukesh makes a draw without losing the 4th round of the World Chess Championship | Chess news

Liren Ding still has a lot of confidence to regain, although a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders last Monday by winning his first World Cup game after a year and a half of medical and sporting crisis. His opponent Dommaraju Gukesh is showing signs of mental stability and had no problem drawing 4th place with black pieces this Friday. The 18-year-old Indian will lead the white team on Saturday in Singapore against the 32-year-old Chinese with an even score (2-2).

Sometimes the start of a match is more than just a formality. The guests on this occasion were the chess icons of the two most populous countries in the world. Xie Jun became the first Chinese world champion (1991), just fifteen years after chess was banned during the horror called Cultural Revolution,

when the great leader Mao Zedong died. Thanks largely to their success, the four best women in the world today are Chinese. Viswanathan Anand, a five-time world champion, is to chess in India what Rafa Nadal is to tennis in Spain, but multiplied by many (India had 1.413 million in 2023; China had 1,399); Four of the top 17 in the rankings today are Indian.

After winning the first game and drawing the second when he had a slight lead, Dean lost the third because he took too long in the opening to escape the death trap that Gukesh and his team had prepared in the laboratory. As a result, the champion made his fourth move like a scalded cat: despite White’s initiative, his second move was very timid, giving up an initial advantage (similar to a tennis serve) in exchange for avoiding poisonous Indian preparations. .

Gukesh reacted quite quickly, making it clear that the surprise did not bother him. Dean then took the time to come up with a good plan. But he found it, and after his twelfth set, Xie Jun assessed the position for El Pais this way: “Lin feels comfortable in this position, and it is easier to play with White.”

However, Gukesh made it clear that he had already overcome stage fright he admits he suffered from it last Monday when he lost the first round. His victory on Wednesday – his first after six games against Dean – erased any trace of an inferiority complex in history’s youngest opponent. Consequently, the Indian prodigy had no problem leveling the score in this fourth game and achieving a draw, which leaves the fight completely even on the scoreboard, but perhaps not yet in psychological balance, because Dean continues to show certain signs (he thinks a lot about some relatively easy) that he has not yet fully regained self-confidence after a year and a half of deep crisis, in his health and fitness.

Xie Jun and Anand deserved a much more interesting fight in a game in which they played out an opening blow that ended in a draw after more than three rather boring hours. But they know very well that in a fight that started with two victories in three rounds, it is normal to be very calm in the fourth.